So I'd better get me some bloggin....

Time is slippin slippin slippin into the future... and I am still trying to catch up.

I've been going through a bit of a crisis mentally *quiet peanut gallery!* and possibly, just maybe, the idea that I'm not coping as well as I had hoped. MOTH suggests I should draft a letter to HR, ready to send if things to get worse. I wonder if I should, or would that just be too tempting to click the Send button instead of taking a deep breath and a walk. When my eldest daughter was very small my then treating doctor diagnosed me with depression. I have been self managing it for years, but about two years ago my now treating doctor said You have depression. I've decided to continue to self manage rather than medicate but boy it's getting difficult some days. The idea of the letter to HR would be to find out if they would help me transfer if I need to. As John Denver once said, some days are diamonds some days are stone.

But on the sunshine side, I'd been toying with the idea of changing my phone. I think I mentioned it last post. I like to do my research so I spend ages looking to see what's there and reading about things that catch my eye. And thinking about what I want. Then I go in store and see if I can see a physical example. It's fun. And I find something I like the look of. I've done some basic searching, the store only has a dummy model so I can't play with it. Fair enough but at least I can see what size the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 really is. Hard to visualise measurements y'know. I leave the store and think about it some more. I research some more, reading specs and reviews. This looks likely. LG Optimus G. I read the reviews. I check the specs. Beauty. I go in store and ask about it. He gives me dimensions. They don't match what I have. Weird. He doesn't have one for me to look at anyway. I go home and think some more. And do more research. Oh. I've been looking at the PRO! No wonder. So more research. More thinking. The store can let me peek at one when it comes in. That's right, it's not even on the market here yet.

The more I think about it, the more I think this might be the phone. Finally, they're in. I can come and have a look. SWEET! *loves me some tech* And ... there it is. Smooth, black and beckoning. I'm sold and I transfer my phone. This is it LG Optimus G. My biggest bug bear? It's not compatible with anything Apple. Because it's Android. Sheesh. This includes iTunes.

Sleep study. I'm a little nervous about it. Heck who am I kidding. I'm VERY nervous about it. I have a general idea of what to expect and it's not pretty. I do have the following day off work though, so at least I'll have time to recover. I need to be there by 7:15pm. MOTH and I hook up Karen and off we go. It's about an hour drive away. We can't find it. Karen says it should be on the left. But where? We've no idea. Pull into a shopping centre while we try to work it out. We're looking at a paper copy of the map sort of directions thing that was included with the appointment information. No go. We can't figure out where we are. I key the address into Google maps. Oh, there we go! Karen took us past it. We need to be on the other side of the road. When we do find it, yes, the information on the paper was accurate. But only as far as now we knew what landmarks we were looking at. Whew. We sit in the car park for about fifteen minutes before I get out and head for the clinic. Eep!

I walk in the clinic. No foyer, just a little space with some chairs and a pretty cabinet with flowers on it. The hall is short with two doors on the right. There's no one there. I walk down the hall a bit and soon this tiny chap bustles up and checks my name. He's got my paperwork and directs me to the first room. Uh oh. Scales. And height. I'm a couple of kilos off my weight estimate but I've not been near a set of scales for years. And I've not checked my height for many years. Oh! Look at that! I thought I was shorter than that. But now I've looked at a conversion tool, maybe I've always been that height.

That done, I'm shown to my room for the night. On the way he shows me a the shower, a kitchenette, loos and here we are, I'm in room 6. There are other patients here already. I see one in his jammies already sitting on his bed reading. Another room has two beds in it. My room is pleasantly surprising. It looks like a very basic motel room, a low bed, paintings and a mirror on the wall. He pulls the blankets from one side of the bed, tells me to change and he'll be back soon to start the hook up. I change, check out the loo, and go back to wait. Up to the front room for a breathing test. This means shoving a mask against your face while one nostril is blocked. Yep, grab the mask handle, shove the styrofoam thingo attached to that tube up your nose, clamp the mask to your face *careful, don't let any air leak!* and now breathe! Left nostril was fine but boy! Did I have trouble trying to breathe through my right.

Back to the room to get hooked up. A belt goes around my chest. Is that too tight? No, ok. Then one around my stomach. Have to adjust that off a bit *dang*. Stand here and he begins. Two wires taped to each calf. Two to the chest. There might be some in the waist belt too. A throat mike is taped on. They are hooked to this little machine that is not much bigger than a desk phone. I get to read for a while before he comes back to hook up the rest. That's done down the other end of the clinic. I have to take the 'phone' with me. These are the ones that will be attached to my face and scalp. He uses a scrub on my cheeks just in front of my ears, behind my ears, on my forehead and another couple of places in my hair. Then some wax, electrodes on, wired into the 'phone', wires zipped into a cloth jacket. While we chat, I begin to get a little sleepy. I mention that if I go to bed too early, I'll be awake at three. He says it's nearly nine o'clock. In the course of the chatter he is called away to check something. One of the other patients is a young girl who has to have an extended ECG as well as the sleep study. She's here with her mother. Soon we're all done. Ready to go. Back to my room, phone on the cradle, oxygen wotsit on my fingertip, and lights out. Wait! But I'm not sleepy anymore! I've not a clue what the time is. He's moved my iPad to another chair. My sudoku puzzle book with it. I lie there a little while *oh no, i can't sleep* There's noise outside. I roll over and ..... zzzzz

I wake up. It's still dark. I wriggle a lot and finally get my hands on my phone. It's 3:40am. Dang. I lie there for a while. And a while. And more of a while. I'm finally beginning to relax and the light on my finger thingo goes blue. It's nearly 5:15am so I guess they've turned me off. A knock on the door and he pops his head in. Time to unhook and take off the tape. It's like getting a wax. The legs don't hurt too much. The scalp pulls some hair but not too badly. One of the ones in front of my ears has well and truly caught in my hair and I think half my face has torn off too. That hurt! I dress and go to the kitchen for a quick cuppa. I can't find milk in the fridge but I've not really looked. Looks like everyone uses it for their lunch and I don't want to accidentally take someone's stuff. I drink it black but I don't really have time to add cold water. I scald my tongue a bit and after a few sips I leave off and rinse the cup. All the other patients have long gone it seems and I'm the last to leave.

MOTH comes to pick me up around 6:00am. I'm so tired, yet I'm sure I slept relatively well. It's after 7:00am when I get home. I go to bed. Sleep till 8:30 then potter around the house. Nappage in the afternoon is good too.

Now I just have to wait a week or two till my doctor gets the results.

And on request ... here's a photo that suitably blurry cause I can't do selfies but it does give an idea of my hair. Heh.